33 Entrances Halls That Make a Stylish First Impression

Consider the entrance hall your opportunity to sweep guests off their feet. Whether visitors are welcomed into a soaring space crowned with a sparkling chandelier, or a cozy foyer with warm wood floors and a bouquet of blooms, the entryway sets the tone for the rest of your home. This transitory spot is the perfect place to showcase a sleek console table and statement mirror, a bold painting or sculpture, or an ornately tiled floor with a vibrant color palette. Utilize this prominent entrance space to add elegant decor details that will help to elevate the overall ambience of your home. Take a cue from these stunning entrances from the Architectural Digest archives and ensure that the foyer of your home is as spectacular as the rooms that follow.

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For a 17th-century-French-style mansion in Houston, interior designer Miles Redd created a powerful entrance hall that blends contemporary art and traditional architecture and furnishings into a stylish mash-up. Taxicab-yellow paint serves as the brilliant backdrop for an Eric Peters painting, a plaster chandelier by Stephen Antonson, a button-tufted bench by John Rosselli & Assoc., and a blue-and-white ceramic jar mounted on a pedestal; the metal balustrade stands out like lace.

Photo: Thomas Loof

233

At Obercreek, the Hudson River Valley farm of investor Alex Reese and his wife, architect Alison Spear, the stone-floored entrance hall is lined with family portraits, hung frame to frame on the pale gray walls. Heirloom Windsor chairs flank the front door, and the 19th-century settees are upholstered in a flame stitch by Scalamandré.

Photo: Joshua McHugh

333

Interior designer Bruce Shostak and his partner, Craig Fitt, decorated the entrance hall of their circa-1817 house in Claverack, New York, in a lively and period-perfect Federal style. The front door opens to walls painted a vibrant apple-green, mismatched striped runners by Woodard & Greenstein, and tiger-maple antiques that match the original banister.

Photo: William Waldron

433

Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet’s London entrance hall was decorated by Michael S. Smith and is centered on two strong octagonal elements: a metal ceiling fixture and a vintage Karl Springer table from Liz O’Brien that stands on a Kravet carpet. The house’s original 1880s fireplace makes for a warm welcome, while the contemporary works of art propped on its mantel add a casual air.

Photo: Oberto Gili

533

In photographer Steven Klein’s entrance hall in Bridgehampton, New York, a Klein image of Brad Pitt pops against the space’s black, white, and brown palette. Horizontal boards amplify the room’s length, the peaked ceiling lends height and drama, and a series of square shapes—the windows, the front door’s panes of glass, and the paneled interior door—provide a stately rhythm.

Photo: Steven Klein

633

A custom-made table anchors a New York City apartment entrance hall that decorator Vicente Wolf conceived as a mini-gallery, with works by Richard Prince, Brice Marden, Eric Fischl, and Thomas Houseago. The large space would also be perfect for a cocktail party, since the long table could serve as a bar, if necessary. The table’s wood tones make it appear to rise out of the floor, and its cabriole legs echo those of the 18th-century Italian stools from VW Home.

Photo: Pieter Estersohn

733

Jean-Louis Deniot, a Paris decorator, gave an American couple’s Left Bank entrance hall aristocratic elegance through the addition of a bold cornice, sweeping fringed curtains made of a Romo velvet, and an inlaid-stone floor; beneath the antique engravings stands a 1940s Louis XVI-style chair upholstered in gold-embossed leather.

Photo: Derry Moore

833

A sunburst of marble and onyx paves the entrance of a Bel Air, California, mansion renovated by Tichenor & Thorp Architects and interior designer Kelly Wearstler. Beneath the spiky Jean de Merry ceiling fixture, a Pedro Friedeberg table rises like a golden fountain, while the floor’s tones are carried throughout the space, linking the golden sconces, gleaming black doors, looming 19th-century bronze statue, and cabinet of lacquer and metal.

Photo: Roger Davies

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The entrance hall of a Swiss residence renovated by Studio Peregalli seems stark at first glance, but textures and architecture warm up the sunlit space. The vaulted ceiling shelters unfinished-wood doors with expressive knots and a diamond-pattern stone floor with a roughened surface. Seventeenth-century Italian hall chairs and a table of the same era further loosen the space with gentle curves and sculptural silhouettes that recall paper cutouts. A gilded frame in the stairwell offers a rich gleam.

Photo: Oberto Gili

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Red-leather-clad 19th-century chairs splash interior designer Tino Zervudachi’s black-and-white Paris entrance hall, which is often used for dinner parties. The 18th-century bronze fawns (based on a pair found at Herculaneum’s Villa of the Papyri) seem to have wandered out of the giant leafy Anselm Kiefer work, and the Turkish-stone floor sports a dark band that blends with the baseboard and gives the white section a carpetlike appearance.

Photo: Derry Moore

1133

At Victoria and Vassily V. Sidorov’s country house near Moscow, designer Gabhan O’Keeffe painted the entrance hall to resemble padded white leather. The ceiling fixture is by Charles Edwards, the black-walnut table’s wasp-waist silhouette keeps sight lines open, and the stone floor features a radiant inlaid pattern of limestone and silver mosaic tiles.

Photo: Luke White

1233

Interior designer Nancy Morton enclosed the loggia of her 1940 house in Boca Grande, Florida, to create an entrance hall that doubles as a casual living space, and she furnished it with welcoming seating areas. The easygoing array of comfortable furniture includes a button-tufted armchair from John Rosselli and O. Henry House scroll-back chairs clad in a Lee Jofa ikat stripe. Artisan Bob Christian painted the trompe l’oeil pediments topped with shells; Staffordshire plates and platters climb the walls; and the floor is covered with travertine tiles by Country Floors.

Photo: Pieter Estersohn

1333

In the entrance hall of this New York apartment by Steven Gambrel, a late-19th-century mirror from O’Sullivan Antiques is mounted above a circa-1920 Art Deco console from Florian Papp and a pair of vintage Axel Einar Hjorth stools from H. M. Luther; beneath the Takashi Murakami painting is a ’30s Art Deco bench from Karl Kemp Antiques.

1433

In a Boston townhouse designed by Wells & Fox, the entrance hall features a chandelier by Jean de Merry, which hangs above a Samuel Kasten Tisserand rug.

1533

Boasting spectacular views, the entrance hall of a Lake Placid, New York, home by architect Gil Schafer includes a 19th-century gilt-frame mirror from Sutter Antiques, a mahogany trolley from John Rosselli Antiques, and George III side chairs with seats covered in a Bennison floral.

1633

In the entrance hall of a Minneapolis mansion, designer Michael S. Smith employed a painting by Jacob Kassay, Qing-dynasty vessels, and a tabletop sculpture by Anish Kapoor; the custom-painted fretwork pattern over the dining room doorway is by Gracie.

1733

In a stylish Hamptons home devised by Deborah Berke and decorated by Thomas O’Brien, the latter’s pendant lights from Aero join an Alexandre Noll sculpture (far end) and a Donald Baechler painting (right) in the entrance hall; an Alexander Calder lithograph is mounted at the bottom of the staircase.

1833

Accented with a 19th-century-style bronze knocker, the front door of a Marrakech home designed by Ahmad Sardar-Afkhami opens onto the entrance hall, which is furnished with an antique Syrian bridal chest and matching mirror, both inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

1933

In Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent’s New York apartment, a Matt Connors painting is mounted behind a 19th-century French pedestal table in the entrance hall, which has a French limestone floor.

2033

The 13th-century entrance hall in this Irish castle was remodeled in the 1830s after a fire; the 17th-century Brussels tapestries came into the family in 1935.

The foyer of Brooke Shields’s New York City townhouse, decorated by David Flint Wood, is furnished with an 1860s Chinese desk adorned with decorative blue-and-white vessels.

Photo: William Waldron

2333

The light-flooded foyer of this Long Island beachfront home by architect Thomas Kligerman and decorator Elissa Cullman welcomes with its warm, neutral palette and natural finishes; the bespoke door hardware is by the Nanz Co., and the steps are made of reclaimed oak.

Photo: Brad Goldfarb

2433

Iconic photographs of New York greet visitors in the foyer of this Manhattan apartment, renovated by architects Peter Shelton and Lee F. Mindel. The plasterwork ceiling and picture lights, were designed by the duo’s firm, Shelton, Mindel & Assoc.

Photo: Joshua McHugh

2533

Architect David Mann enhanced the double-height entrance hall of this New York City apartment with an Hervé Van der Straeten pendant light from Ralph Pucci International and an antiqued-brass-and-silver railing by Morgik Metal Designs.

Circa-1930 FontanaArte lanterns from Bernd Goeckler Antiques join a framed work by Robert Longo and a floor sculpture by Richard Serra in the entrance hall of a New York apartment renovated by designer Nicholas Kilner.

2833

A fifth-century Chinese lohan figure stands on an antique Northern European commode from Newel in the entrance hall of a Manhattan townhouse transformed by design firm Sawyer | Berson.

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Black-and-white floor tiles by Clé provide a graphic welcome at the Manhattan duplex apartment of Naomi Watts; the interiors were designed by the firm Ashe + Leandro. The entrance hall's pendant light is by Ralph Lauren Home, the 19th-century shell-back chairs are from KRB, and the painting in the stairway is by Harland Miller.

3033

In the baronial entry hall of Tommy Hilfiger's Connecticut estate, an antique iron chandelier hangs over an 1840s Gothic Revival library table and Martyn Lawrence Bullard–designed stools, which are dressed in a Robert Kime print with a Samuel & Sons fringe trim.

3133

A deep-red Anish Kapoor sculpture greets visitors in the entrance hall of a Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, house designed by Charles Zana for a couple with a blue-chip contemporary-art collection. The text painting is by Richard Prince, and the console is by Eric Schmitt; a dramatic glass-bead sculpture by Jean-Michel Othoniel dangles from 30 feet above.

3233

Early American antiques set the tone in the front entrance hall of the Long Island home of designers Thomas O'Brien and Dan Fink.

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At a Southampton home renovated by interior designer David Netto and architect David Hottenroth, a rush basket from Mecox sits beside the door in the entry hall, which is crowned by a Charles Edwards pendant light. A Poul Kjærholm daybed stretches out in front of the fireplace, and the midcentury French shell sconces are from JF Chen.